When Joan Baez recorded that song, the fear was that the testing of nuclear weapons was releasing so much radioactivity into the atmosphere that living things (including humans) would be adversely affected. We don’t yet know, of course, the degree to which living things might have been (or are being) influenced by the radioactivity, but—so far, at least—we haven’t had any major biological disasters (that we know of). The current fears about the climate are based primarily on what has been global climate change” or Global Warming And it certainly seems as though our climate has been changing.
In general, the planet has been warming. We know that in the past, the earth has experienced long periods of cold weather typically called Ice Ages. We know that we have had variations in Global Mean Temperatures over the years (especially measured in centuries), we (humans and other creatures with whom we share the planet) can adapt relatively well to the variations, assuming, of course, that the variations aren’t too extreme. Those of us who live in Michigan, for example, have long been used to cold, snowy winters, and warm (sometimes hot) summers, with moderate springs and falls in between.
I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area part of California. Summers were warm, but not too hot. My first year of college was at the College of Wooster in Ohio, and I was not prepared for winter in Ohio. I started wearing what was supposed to be my winter coat in October. For my second year of college, I transferred to the University of Redlands in southern California. Eventually, of course, I adapted to life in the Midwest, including snowy, icy winters. I completed my education in Illinois (when and where we had real winters) and then spent a year at the University of Florida before taking a better-paying job at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. I am definitely familiar with the variety of climates in the States.
Regardless of where you live, if you have lived long enough, you have experienced climate change. Since I have lived in Michigan, climate change has definitely been in an “upward” direction: both summers and winters are warmer than they used to be.
The first three years I lived in Michigan I did not have air conditioning. Opening the windows was enough, and on really hot days, adding a window fan, was enough to keep the house at a comfortable temperature. At this point, however, I can’t imagine doing without air conditioning in the summer. And, of course, I still need the furnace in the winter, but I use it a lot less than I did my first few years in Michigan. It remains to be seen how much I will need my furnace this coming winter. I expect to use it again this year, however, because large systems (and global temperatures are definitely a large system) typically don’t change quickly.
The real question is whether the climate will change enough—and quickly enough–to adversely influence life on earth. Climatologists are paying attention, although—so far, at least—the general public hasn’t been paying much attention. That’s understandable. It is hard to imagine that any one person can do much to influence a system as large as global climate. As a species, we would seem to have a lot in common with the dinosaurs that weren’t aware of how they might be influenced by climate change.
While I expect global temperatures to continue increasing, I am not expecting the planet to warm sufficiently as to create serious problems for most of those currently living, including my grandchildren. I wonder from time to time, however, what future generations are likely to encounter, especially if we fail to take action to slow the process of global warming. In general, humans don’t work on solving problems until there’s some kind of emergency. How many buildings burned down before humans started employing fire fighters and invented smoke alarms? We need to remember that we do not have a Planet B we can easily move to when we have rendered Earth uninhabitable.
